For Ben Smith, a political blogger for POLITICO, tweeting has turned readers away from the aim of the blog—people are becoming immune to the 140-character limit Twitter establishes, leaving them quick to absorb small amounts of information as deemed truths.
With the coming election in 2012, politicians almost have to rely on campaigning through social media somewhat—whether blogging or Tweeting, but for Ben “[Twitter is] sort of draining the life from the blog. […] Where people were hitting refresh on my blog because they wanted to see what my latest newsbreak was, now they’ll just be on Twitter.”
The shortening of things, though good for sending out mass-communicative messages on the quick, is somewhat dangerous, especially in the political realm where politicians’ campaigns are likely to promise a lot but offer very little.
Politicians such as Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have already been utilizing their Twitter accounts to the max, hoping to engage as many people as possible for the 2012 campaign.
Luckily with the convenience of link shortening and Twitter site redirecting, blogs are still easily accessible through Twitter, but people are more prone to absorb and retain shorter messages. After all, the average attention span for humans is a mere 8 seconds.
(via adweek, photo via Search Engine People)
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